Royal Canadian Legion

"The 450" Remembrance Service
St. Servatius Church in Erp, the Netherlands
Sunday 04 October 1998

There are many National War Cemeteries in Holland, which receive annual recognition in the form of Remembrance Day or Liberation Day Parades. In addition to these Memorials there are 450 Allied Grave Sites located in towns and villages scattered throughout Holland where Allied Servicemen are buried in local cemeteries.

To ensure these individual graves are not forgotten one of the three Royal British Legion's, assisted by the other two branches, based in the Netherlands organise and conduct a Remembrance Service in one of these towns each year to honour those who gave their lives for peace and freedom.

This year's ceremony was organised by the Eindhoven Branch of The Royal British Legion and as in previous years through our Zone Commander, Mr. Thomas Andrews they requested a Colour Party from each of the three Royal Canadian Legions in Germany to participate.

Branch 001, Baden Söllingen and Branch 002, Lahr departed Saturday 03 October at approximately 0800 hrs. Military accommodations were unavailable in the area so we stayed at the Hotel Commerce in small Dutch town south of Eindhoven. We had breakfast 0730 hrs. Sunday 04 October and departed for our destination at Erp, the Netherlands. Arrived approximately 1100 hrs. done a recce of the church and nearby cemetery where lies the graves of six Airman of the Royal Air Force and British Soldier of the Royal Engineers.

Returned to the reception hall near the church where we were joined by the Colour Party from 003 Branch of the Royal Canadian Legion from Geilenkirchen and together we were greeted and welcomed by members of the Royal British Legion. At 1330 hrs the Colour party formed up and paraded to the church. Once inside this beautiful little church we were treated to the finest Address I have ever heard by Reverend Victor Story. I would dearly love to have a transcript of his Address: He spoke of his trip to the town of Erp the week prior to the event so he could prepare himself for the Remembrance Service, he got lost and by mistake drove to a Canadian War Cemetery. Once inside the Cemetery, as he stood among the rows after rows of headstones each depicting a young man who paid the supreme sacrifice and gave their lives for their friends, how the presence of those young people there can effect your emotions to a point that can bring you to tears I guess you would have to be there !!!

It is a fact that Military Cemeteries affect you emotionally like no other burial grounds. When you are young cemeteries give you a ghostly feeling probably from the stories you have been told. Those of you who are from a country village and walking home late at night alone tend to walk a little faster by the old grave yard and try not to glance in that direction. As you grow older cemeteries become a place where they put you when you die. As you walk through a cemetery you can sometimes feel sorry when you see on the headstone that the person died very young, sometimes you wonder how the person may have died, was it an accident or some kind of illness. The other most common thing you do while walking through a cemetery is to figure out how old the person was when he died by the dates on the headstones but in most cases you are not effected emotionally.

When you visit burial sites of mass distraction or concentration camps it can be traumatic but the emotion one feels is one of compassion for the victims and one of rage and absolute disgust for those responsible for such an atrocity. Now when you visit a Military Cemetery and stand among all those headstones read the names, military units they served with and ages, row after row you get the feeling they are still there with you. It makes you think of the battles they fought, the way they must have died fighting for our freedom in a land far away from home. The heroism displayed and finally the sacrifice by these young men has an emotional impact that will bring tears to your eyes. Another ironic thing is it does not matter which nation the military cemetery is from the feeling is the same.

And so it was in this cemetery in the town of Erp. Following the official ceremony we joined our Comrades of The Royal British Legion for a reception where a good time was had by all. Later that afternoon our members from Branch 003 departed for home. The members from Lahr and Baden stayed over night and returned home the next day.